New Hampshire's Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director said Thursday the unusually heavy snow has caused the state's fourth largest power outage and warned residents power may not be restored for days.

The first major snowstorm of the season left nearly 200,000 customers without power in New Hampshire.

By Thursday afternoon, Public Service of new Hampshire reported more than 167,000, down from over 170,000 overnight Many are in central and southern New Hampshire.

Unitil said it had about 15,700 customers without power, down from a peak of 31,000. Most are in the Concord area.

New Hampshire Electric Co-Op reports more than 15,000 without power and Liberty Utilities reports 450 without power.

"We’re addressing power outages as quickly as possible, but the state was hit incredibly hard and it will take days for power to be restored to all areas," Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Perry Plummer said. "With temperatures dropping below freezing tonight and into the single digits Friday night, residents without heat should consider going to stay with a friend or at a local shelter."

The outages were caused not only by heavy snow bringing down tree branches onto power lines, but also car accidents into utility poles.

"You prepare for the worst and hope for the best, and this time, we prepared for the worst and got maybe even a little worse than that," Lauren Collins with PSNH said.

State police said late Wednesday that poor weather conditions had caused dozens of crashes and hundreds of vehicles to run off the road. Authorities said five state police cruisers had been struck by motorists while parked at accident scenes. At least one trooper was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The first major snowstorm of the season has left nearly 100,000 customers without power in Maine.

Utilities are urging customers to stay away from downed power lines and to contact them if outages occur.